Dark Void Review - PC

Game Description: Use the jet pack to engage in air combat or land for intense ground combat in Dark Void. Fight a ruthless enemy using futuristic weapons and an innovative vertical cover system that establishes any direction as up.

Dark Void Review

Dark Void tries to combine high-flying action with cover-based shooting, succeeding at the former and stumbling on the latter.

The Pros

Flight controls are stellar, once you get the hang of them

Bear McCreary's score is excellent

The Cons

Awkward on-foot controls

Forgettable art style, visuals, and villains

Cliché-ridden story

Gamers often complain that games drag on a bit too long or that some artificially lengthen the experience to such a point that the game is no longer being fun. It’s ironic, then, that while Airtight Games’s Dark Void is certainly guilty of stretching out the action, it does so via the worst possible method: Holding the game’s main hook--a jetpack--until a third of the way into the game. Although Airtight, a team comprised of developers from 2003’s Xbox dogfighting classic Crimson Skies, has an idea of how to soar through the clouds, Dark Void proves that the team has its work cut out when it comes to fun at lower altitudes.

Dark Void thrusts you into an alternate-reality Bermuda Triangle circa 1938 with all the genteel tact of baptizing an infant by casting it into the deep end of an Olympic diving pool. As Will, the square-jawed aviator, you’ll kick off the game mid-dogfight with a fully functioning jetpack, guns, and nary a clue how you’re supposed to take down the myriad of UFOs attempting to smite you. From there, you’ll spend a third of Dark Void wrestling with clunky cover-based shooting, misdirected melees, and bland locales before upgrading your jetpack and unleashing your main motive for playing the game.

The premise is simplistic, if not a patchwork of predictable sci-fi “hero’s journey” conventions: Will and former flame Ava are lost in the Bermuda Triangle, which has been overrun with waves of Watchers -- an android race of aliens trying to enslave humanity. Will survives these encounters for a few chapters before running into Nikola Tesla, who sets him up with a neutered hoverpack around the third or fourth chapter.

When Will is grounded, the action is competent, but unexciting. The cover system pales in comparison to most contemporary action games and movement out of cover feels constricted. The mechanics of vertical cover-based shooting, where Will can hang from a cliff edge and shoot up at enemies using cover a la Gears of War, lacks pizzazz and ultimately feels like you’re just shooting further down a typical horizontal corridor. It’s nice in theory, but in execution it doesn’t work so wonderfully.

From here, you’re ready to kick ass, right? Wrong. You’ll spend some time hovering before you gain control of the full jetpack and by that time, you may already have grown quite weary of Dark Void’s shortcomings. The “You Are the Prophesized Savior” story, telegraphed with all of the subtlety of a Punch-Out!! boxer’s attacks, doesn’t help, nor does the presence of Nolan North as Will. He’s a terrific voice actor, but the familiarity of his voice hurts here -- you’ll think of better games (Uncharted, Assassin’s Creed, Prince of Persia) featuring his dulcet tones.

When You’re a Jet...

In spite of the tired tropes of Dark Void’s story and the vanilla third-person shooting contained in the game, Airtight’s pedigree with aerial combat shines through, instilling an awesome sense of wonder as you loop the loop, rebound, and blast through legions of UFOs using your jetpack. It’s quite entertaining once you’re comfortable with the rhythm of aerial battles and how to perform certain maneuvers. And, in those moments, Dark Void cuts through its handicaps -- bland visuals, boilerplate storytelling and clunky ground combat -- to grab your attention. Add in Battlestar Galactica soundtrack composer Bear McCreary, and you’ve got a powerful score that intensifies these fights and set pieces.

Unfortunately, your flight only lasts for a few hours before you encounter a mission that takes away your pack, and you’re brought back down to Earth. Although you re-earn your jets to finish the fight quickly, the psychological damage is done, since you’ve grown accustomed to soaring dogfights. The sudden loss of the game’s best feature is a sore reminder of Dark Void’s weakest moments.

Not the Flyest

Dark Void could be more easily forgiven its trespasses if it tapped into more of its potential. Some visual flair or a more unique art style could have improved the game greatly as, at heart, it’s not very pretty. On the ground, Dark Void’s environments don’t feel so much lively as they do shooting galleries that you cruise through on your way to unlocking easy achievements and trophies. This lifelessness isn’t only relegated to its environments, but to its main villains, as well.

The Watchers are largely forgettable, especially when you think of other games like Resistance, Gears of War, or even the recent Bayonetta. All of those games have ugly, twisted enemies that motivate you to quash and destroy them. In Dark Void, you’ll certainly shoot at The Watchers, but that’s mainly because they shoot first. Their plot to subvert humanity isn’t exactly the stuff of fresh storytelling, either. You’ll likely have more emotional investment in padding your gamerscore than saving the world.

I can pinpoint the great moment where Dark Void succeeds, and honestly, had Airtight Games fleshed it out, it could have been a great experience. The aerial combat truly shows off the team’s stellar pedigree in creating tense dogfights. Unfortunately, its greatest moments are far too late in coming and are ultimately overshadowed by the lackluster shooting sections, drab art style, and boilerplate storytelling in the game. During one of Dark Void’s lengthy load screens, the onscreen text reads “if at first you don’t succeed, try a different method.” It makes me wish the team had taken its own advice. It’s sad to see such great potential buried under layers of mediocrity.\

Comments are Closed

you can find this game for 20 bucks now. Probably even less. I've played it and beaten it. I agree with the review, but if you like video games (i know you do) you should give it a shot. Its not that bad.

I remember this game a little over 11 years ago.. only it was called Tribes, not Dark Void.. if I remember correctly, it revolutionized gaming; spawned titles like team fortress and halo and then was left in the dust.. broken and forgotten.. and now this game has the nerve to claim its the first game with jet packs? Something is really wrong with this picture..

Here's the first thing I don't get about this review:How did this game get a "3 out of 5", while [D|s]: Wrath of War gets a "2 out of 5"?And thats even with having a positive anticipation (nearing excitement) for this game (until it was reviewed).Maybe Abbie Heppe should review Dark Void, and Sterling McGarvey should review D|s: Wrath of War?(Different rating result for different reviewer?)

I'll admit, right off the bat, that I've only played the DEMO, but from MY experience (with just the demo), it was completely the other way around from what Sterling said about it.

I felt that the ON-FOOT game-play was refreshingly alright; wanting only a few necessary tweaks to the whole "sliding into cover", and "moving from cover", deal, making it tighter.And maybe making the weapons more balanced, and not have the Watcher rifles overpower the human rifle so much (referring to the 2 Watcher guns & default rifle in the demo).I felt more comfortable with movement on land, than I was with flight maneuvering.[Though I don't know if being more accustomed to on-foot FPS/TPS, rather than Flight shooters, has anything to do with it.]

With FLIGHT, you really need a lot of airspace to be able to do ANYthing; controls didn't allow for tighter flight maneuvering (read, "sharp turning"), short of using the instructed flight tricks (i.e. "barrel roll" & et cetera), OR just switching to "hover mode", turning, then back to flight mode.[Though I don't know if only playing the demo, and being kept from using the fully-upgraded jet-pack (or even the pre-order exclusive DLC code for the golden jet-pack), has anything to do with my experience, either.]If you have bogeys on your tail, you're pretty much screwed if you're flying around via jet-pack as opposed to via a UFO; yet aiming with the jet-pack is nonsensically easier than aiming with the UFO's, that are there for hi-jacking.Locking-on to an enemy UFO with the hi-jacked UFO, then TRYing to follow & SHOOT the target, only proved to give me a headache, as well as artificially-induced vertigo.And when the enemy UFO flies to a cliff wall, then does a quick maneuver..if you're locked-on, you can't maneuver fast enough to tail the enemy UFO and you wind up hitting the cliff wall.It basically makes the lock-on feature useless, when flying in the UFO.It was really only fun when a target is directly in front of you (not flying around with a flight-path of a glow-stick at a rave), or when you're hi-jacking a UFO; other than that the flight portion was pretty much stale (at the very least; garbage - at most).

As for the rest of the game (within the confines of the demo), the only other gripe(s) I had with it were the HUD display and the environment - there was just a total lack of detail in the designs.The HUD looked bland & simple, instead of detailed & intricate.The environments lacked distinction, as if everything was farther away than it really is.And the overall graphics just felt plastic-y as if the target base was for pre-teens.Everything else about the game was alright with me.I wouldn't change the rating though, save for giving away one of it's stars to D|s: Wrath of War.

Here's the first thing I don't get about this review:How did this game get a "3 out of 5", while [D|s]: Wrath of War gets a "2 out of 5"?And thats even with having a positive anticipation (nearing excitement) for this game (until it was reviewed).Maybe Abbie Heppe should review Dark Void, and Sterling McGarvey should review D|s: Wrath of War?(Different rating result for different reviewer?)

I'll admit, right off the bat, that I've only played the DEMO, but from MY experience (with just the demo), it was completely the other way around from what Sterling said about it.

I felt that the ON-FOOT game-play was refreshingly alright; wanting only a few necessary tweaks to the whole "sliding into cover", and "moving from cover", deal, making it tighter.And maybe making the weapons more balanced, and not have the Watcher rifles overpower the human rifle so much (referring to the 2 Watcher guns & default rifle in the demo).I felt more comfortable with movement on land, than I was with flight maneuvering.[Though I don't know if being more accustomed to on-foot FPS/TPS, rather than Flight shooters, has anything to do with it.]

With FLIGHT, you really need a lot of airspace to be able to do ANYthing; controls didn't allow for tighter flight maneuvering (read, "sharp turning"), short of using the instructed flight tricks (i.e. "barrel roll" & et cetera), OR just switching to "hover mode", turning, then back to flight mode.[Though I don't know if only playing the demo, and being kept from using the fully-upgraded jet-pack (or even the pre-order exclusive DLC code for the golden jet-pack), has anything to do with my experience, either.]If you have bogeys on your tail, you're pretty much screwed if you're flying around via jet-pack as opposed to via a UFO; yet aiming with the jet-pack is nonsensically easier than aiming with the UFO's, that are there for hi-jacking.Locking-on to an enemy UFO with the hi-jacked UFO, then TRYing to follow & SHOOT the target, only proved to give me a headache, as well as artificially-induced vertigo.And when the enemy UFO flies to a cliff wall, then does a quick maneuver..if you're locked-on, you can't maneuver fast enough to tail the enemy UFO and you wind up hitting the cliff wall.It basically makes the lock-on feature useless, when flying in the UFO.It was really only fun when a target is directly in front of you (not flying around with a flight-path of a glow-stick at a rave), or when you're hi-jacking a UFO; other than that the flight portion was pretty much stale (at the very least; garbage - at most).

As for the rest of the game (within the confines of the demo), the only other gripe(s) I had with it were the HUD display and the environment - there was just a total lack of detail in the designs.The HUD looked bland & simple, instead of detailed & intricate.The environments lacked distinction, as if everything was farther away than it really is.And the overall graphics just felt plastic-y as if the target base was for pre-teens.Everything else about the game was alright with me.I wouldn't change the rating though, save for giving away one of it's stars to D|s: Wrath of War.

This game is good but not that great. I still would prefer it to that God awful wet or pathetic rogue warrior but the price tag for a "not so great game just makes it rediculous when I can't afford all the better games.

ok here's the thing its hard for us as gamers to trust these reviews when they vary so much between the different sources. Gameinformer gave Dark Void a 7 out of 10 Xplay gives it a 3 out of 5 xbox magazine gave it a 5 out of 10. DMC4( which I liked very much) got a 9 out of 10 from both magazines and a 3 from Xplay. Army of two 40th day- Gameinformer 6.5 xbox magazine 8 Xplay 4 out of 5 Darksiders(I am currently paying this game and am enjoying it) got a 2 from Xplay an 8.5 from Gameinformer and a 7 out of 10 from xbox magazine . Does anyone else see a pattern here? I think that the opinions of the reviewers can make it hard for us as consumers to want to spend 60 dollars on a game when they are all so different. On the up side Gamestop lets you bring back any used game within 7 days of purchase if you dont like it. So ultimately I guess it is better to wait and buy used or rent first before you spend your hard earned cash on a new copy, especially in our present economy.

ok here's the thing its hard for us as gamers to trust these reviews when they vary so much between the different sources. Gameinformer gave Dark Void a 7 out of 10 Xplay gives it a 3 out of 5 xbox magazine gave it a 5 out of 10. DMC4( which I liked very much) got a 9 out of 10 from both magazines and a 3 from Xplay. Army of two 40th day- Gameinformer 6.5 xbox magazine 8 Xplay 4 out of 5 Darksiders(I am currently paying this game and am enjoying it) got a 2 from Xplay an 8.5 from Gameinformer and a 7 out of 10 from xbox magazine . Does anyone else see a pattern here? I think that the opinions of the reviewers can make it hard for us as consumers to want to spend 60 dollars on a game when they are all so different. On the up side Gamestop lets you bring back any used game within 7 days of purchase if you dont like it. So ultimately I guess it is better to wait and buy used or rent first before you spend your hard earned cash on a new copy, especially in our present economy.